ENTERTAINMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 21771, 28 July 1932, Page 11

ENTERTAINMENTS

THE MAJESTIC. JOAN BENNETT RETURNS. “SHE WANTED A MILLIONAIRE.” Spectacle, pageantry, beauty . winners, comedy and drama skilfully interwoven into absorbing screen enterainment is the ambitious promise of She Wanted a Millionaire,” which began a season at the Majestic last evening. This film marks the return to ths silver sheet of that charming and popular screen star, Joan Bennett, after an absence of six months which she spent recuperating from a serious injury she suffered last summer when she fell from a horse while making one of the picture’s many dramatic sequences. Joan Bennett, as the girl whose childhood poverty leads her to determine to marry a millionaire, is delightful as well as entirely plausible in the role. Her lovely grace and charm, especially when she competes with the scores of other Hollywood beauties for the coveted title of Miss Universe, has never been shown to better advantage. And the dramatic tensity of the plot provides her with the emotional situations so dear to the family of Bennett. As a small-town boy whose faith and loyalty remain true while the flattery and adulation of the crowd occupy his sweetheart’s mind Spencer Tracy gives an outstanding characterization. His role is further marked in that it offers him many scenes with Una Merkel, whose original brand of humour grows increasingly more popular on the screen. James Kirkwood, as the millionaire husband; Douglas Cosgrove, as Joan’s ne’er-do-well father; Dorothy Peterson as her work-and-worry-rid-den mother, and Donald Dillaway as a conceited young suitor complete the outstanding character roles seen in support. The dramatic content of “She Wanted a Millionaire” is drawn around Joan’s life from the time she is old enough to decide that a money marriage is the only way out of life’s difficulties. Unknown to her, Tracy enters her picture in a beauty contest. From that moment it seems the good things of life fall in her lap. But with the good things come troubles also, which begin after her wedding, when she discovers that her aged husband has been married three times before. The climax is reached when Tracy, now a successful executive, discovers her at the arts ball in Paris Queen of Beauty, but most miserable of human beings. Una Merkel, delightful comedienne, who made the southern accent popular on the screen, and Dorothy Peterson, who played Will Rogers’s wife in his last picture, “Business and Pleasure,” are the other featured players, with Donald Dillaway, Douglas Cosgrove, and Lucille La Verne in important roles. An attractive programme of supports is also being shown. ALL BRITISH PROGRAMME. THE MAJESTIC ON SATURDAY. If laugh and grow fat is a true axiom, everyone who sees “The Love Race” at the Majestic during its season which commences on Saturday will have to let out their clothes. Never has so much laughter been packed into so small a space. “The Love Race” scintillates with mirth and cheery dialogue, and goes with a swing from the opening caption to the final fade-out, which, of course, is a fade-out that is as satisfying to the audience as it is to the characters in the play. As was the case in “Love Lies,” the star of “The Love Race” is that immensely popular comedian Stanley Lupino, who is fast becoming as popular in New Zealand as he is in England. In this new show he is better than ever. From the opening scene, in which he engaged in hilarious back-chat with his father, played by Frank Perfitt, right through to the final scene, which takes place in a courtroom, where the judge and jury alike sway to the rhythm of Lupino’s catchy song, “Just Dance,” there is not a dull moment. The story concerns the Mostyns and Powleys, two rival types of car, and favourites for a race at Brooklands. The son of the Powleys is in love with the daughter of the Mostyns, but Powley the elder has forbidden him to marry her, for he cannot forgive the family who threatens his chances on the track. However, love goes on, and so does the race. The climax is as unexpected as it is clever. Assisting the star are Jack Hobbs, Wallace Arthur, Dorothy Boyd, Dorothy Bartlam, and Florence Vie, Dorothy Boyd will be remembered for her splendid performances in “The Sport of Kings,” “Too Many Crooks,” and “Third Time Lucky,” and Florence Vie was out in New Zealand with the Williamson firm in the early days of the World Wai- in musical shows which included “High Jinks” and “The Girl In The Taxi.” A feature of the supporting items will'include a selection by Mark Hambourg, a gazette, and a “Secrets of Nature" film. THE REGENT. “THE BELOVED BACHELOR.” PAUL LUKAS, CHARLES RUGGLES, DOROTHY JORDAN. A tender, and intriguing love story is presented in Paramount’s “The Beloved Bachelor,” the first picture in which Paul Lukas appears as the featured lead, now showing at the Regent Theatre. Based upon a play by Edward H. Peples, this talkie places the handsome and highly effective Lukas in a role such as his many admirers would have ordered for him, had they a choice in the matter. Lukas, throughout the action of the play, is a thoroughly lovable personage. As a sculptor, who is slowly carving a name for himself in the world of art, he lives quietly in a studio building with two artist-cronies, Charles Ruggles and Harold Minjir. Paul is in love with a beautiful young actress, Vivienne Osborne. But she becomes unjustly suspicious of his relations with a woman who had been his model, and their romance is shattered. Later the model dies, leaving a six-year-old daughter. Paul, out of kindness, adopts the tot, and rears her in his own home. When the ward attains young womanhood, she develops an intense love for Paul, but cannot bring herself to tell him of this feeling. He continues to treat her as a little girl. Meanwhile, he has achieved renown for his creative work as a sculptor. The former sweetheart, now married to a business man, learns of his success, and meets him again, after a lapse of 12 years. He still loves her, and she declares she will get a divorce so that they can be married. But the beautiful young ward, Dorothy Jordan, learns of the renewed love affair, and decides, it is time to do something vital on behalf of her own affection for Paul. She does something—and the result is a happy one. The play is deftly worked out with as little resorting to the dramatic as possible In fact, it is almost entirely romantic—with generous dashes of comedy furnished by Charlie Ruggles, Marjorie Gateson and Harold Minjir. The. finale is exciting, and pleasant.. It is all achieved without the firing of a single shot of anything more violent than Charlie Ruggles’ spontaneous wit. The supporting featurettes include a., comedy with Ford Stirling in the principal role, one of Paramount’s famous Screen Songs in which the background is provided by Rudy Vallee and his orchestra, a Paramount British News, and other films. J